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Monday 25 August 2008

Sitting on the dock on the bay

Annapolis, Maryland

We drove five hours to get here. Mrs. Phred is catching a train to New York to see the U.S. Tennis Open. I'm staying here by myself to watch the dog. Andy left his computer for me to use. My computer died again so it may be awhile before I blog again...stop me before I blog again...

Annapolis is a lovely little city on the Chesapeake Bay. Lots of old town homes and row houses. We're staying with friends that have a house two blocks from downtown. I do a walking survey this morning and see many pubs and restaurants. One place, established in 1750 offers a variety of afternoon teas and Shepard's pies. We see the lower class men from the U.S. Naval Academy walking the streets on Sunday in their whites. The shoulder boards of the lower class plebes are familiar. I wore the same ones in Officer Training School in the Air Force.

The guy who will fix my computer again is Jeremy in Tampa. He drove an aircraft carrier during the 1st Gulf War. I let him ride my Kawasaki when he came back, thinking that if he could handle a carrier, a motorcycle would be no problem. He revved it up and popped the clutch and drove it though a wall. Later I hired him into my IT shop and taught him what I knew. I think he's up to 50 employees now and repairs my laptop when it breaks. He gives me a break on the price. I think he remembers what he did to my bike.

Jeremy told me a story about scraping and painting a carrier anchor chain at midnight in the Mediterranean. An old Chief Petty Officer caught him doing it and asked why. He said "it's something I know how to do". I knew then that he was a good officer.

we got a great deal on a transatlantic crossing from Ft. Lauderdale to Rome on the Holland America/Noordam cruise ship on April 3rd. We'll do a global Eurail pass for 60 days (or just buy train tickets) and then catch a flight back...that's at least a year before we have to worry again about a home....

I'm doing a volunteer trip to assist with the annual audit of a Puerto Rican affiliate on September 23. I'll spend an extra week to do some diving and bet on some cockfights...then to Key West in October for more diving and the Fantasy Fest.

My knee hurts when I drive more than 30 minutes. They don't make enough legroom in today's little cars. When our Dalmatian got old, we gave him massive doses of glucosamine to help his joints. Eventually we had to put him down but the glucosamine seemed to help for awhile. I think I'll try some myself.

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